Secrets Behind the Veil
by aconite91
Summary: The Original Family has been alive for 1000 years. In that time, they have made friends & enemies. Silas' presence is soon going to reveal just what the Originals will have to face. For with the dropping of the Veil, a darker & more dangerous force will be cast from the shadows that will force them to fight against each other, or to band together. Forever and Always, right?


**Hello all! I'm sorry this isn't another chapter to Know Thy Name, but my boyfriend on seeing the reception that KTN has received, he wanted me to post this. I have over 68 handwritten pages to this story already done. This will take longer to write, edit and post than KTN. But I will get them both out as fast as I can. I hope you enjoy this. **

**A/N: I started writing this after 4x18, so anything after that is slightly altered or skewed.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, they are the wonderful creations of Julie Plec and LJ Smith. **

**Book One**

**Chapter One**

The little girl smiled as she ran through the open field of wildflowers and Vervain. This was her home; she had always lived in the open French countryside. Her family was rich, from a long line of Aristocrats, and they still lived in one of the oldest of the family's palaces. She had grown up in a replica of Versailles since she was born. Her birth had been hard on her mother, her older sisters and brothers had been easier, but she had been born in the winter. Her mom had a Witch midwife tending to her, and it was only due to a mixture of magic and Vampire blood that her, and her mom survived her birth.

But, at the tender age of three, the young toddler only registered some of the words that her family used when telling her of the story of her birth. She was the youngest of nine siblings; she had four sisters and four brothers. And she loved all of her family, but her favorite family members were her Uncles and their friend. Her Uncle Elijah was tall, with long, shoulder-length brown hair and always in a suit, but he loved her dearly. Her Uncle Niklaus on the other hand was slightly shorter than his older brother, with shoulder-length blonde hair, and always in paint covered pants. They both spoiled her with books, clothing, toys, and different accessories for her hair. Their friend though was her favorite person ever. Vextherian Altieri, who she simply called "Vex", was as tall as her Uncle Elijah, with naturally tanned skin, short brown hair, and beautiful, bright brown eyes. He also spoiled her; with stories, candies, flowers and jewelry, all that she ever wanted he gave her; including a very beautiful necklace of white gold, with a white gold Templar Cross with an onyx in the center and a bracelet with a lapis lazuli gem in the center of a small, rose-shaped pendant.

Currently, she had her necklace and bracelet in her black and white teddy bear backpack as she ran through the flowers in her favorite white sundress and white boots, to the waiting arms of her Uncle Niklaus. Her long, waist-length, black hair was pulled up out of her face with a white headband, and her green eyes sparkled with laughter. Giggling as her Uncle picked her up and hugged her close to him, she smiled and gave him a toothy grin as her mom walked the length of the driveway to give her Uncle Niklaus her overnight bag.

"Are you sure you can handle her for a week, Klaus?" Her mother questioned him as she handed over the purple and white duffel bag filled with a week's worth of clothes for the small girl. Smiling up at him, the child snuggled closer to her fair-headed Uncle and waved goodbye as her mother kissed her forehead before walking back up to the house. She was going to be staying with him for a whole week; a full seven days and she couldn't wait to see his new home. Her mother had said that he was now living in England, and she hadn't seen it yet.

Klaus smiled down at the little bundle of energy that rested with her head on his chest and a strand of his curly hair in her small hand. She had fallen asleep almost as soon as he had carried her onto his private jet. They were taking the plane across the English Channel to London, and then were taking his private limo to his new home in the English countryside.

He was amazed at how close he had come to the girl's family. After 682 years, the families were still close. With the youngest addition to the de Leon family, he couldn't help it. The young girl was a treasure, and a miracle. He had been present when she had been born, and it was only due to a mixture of Vampire blood and magic that she had survived. When it had become apparent that she could die, his brother Elijah, Vextherian and he had mixed their blood to heal both the young girl and her mother Genevieve.

He was floored that the family had named him and Elijah co-Godfathers, and had named Vextherian as her legal guardian in case of emergency. But taking care of the newest child born into the oldest family that he was friends with and loyal to gave him a piece of life that he never thought he would be privy to. He had been alive for 1,018 years, forever and always physically 23 years old. But, ironically time had not slowed or registered to him for 500 years, until the youngest de Leon child had been born. The innocent human even saw his estranged brother Elijah.

Klaus smiled as the plane touched down and he carried Azriaelle from the plane to his waiting limo. Her bag was stored in the backseat with him and he let the movements of the car lull him to sleep.

* * *

Abby Wilson Bennett was from a long line of very strong Witches, and she was a new mother. Her daughter, Bonnie had just turned 3 years old. But, instead of being happy, she was worried and stressed. Her long time friend, Miranda Gilbert had called and told her about a man that had been seen talking to Elena, and afterwards Elena had asked her what a "dobbleganer" was. Abby didn't need to be a Witch to translate what Elena, an innocent 3 year old had tried to say: Doppelganger. And the word sent a shiver down her spine, but nothing had made her cringe more than when Miranda informed her of the man's name.

Mikael; and there was only one vampire with the name, the 1,000 year old Original Vampire, that Abby's great-many times descended from ancestor Ayanna had known. Ayanna had been the man's friend, and had taught his wife Esther the ways of magic and to talk to the Spirits: the souls of dead Witches and Warlocks.

To say that she was terrified was a gross understatement, but she knew what she had to do. And she knew of someone that would be able to assist her in her task: Vextherian Altieri.

Vextherian Altieri was a Vampire hunter that she had run into a few years before Bonnie was born when he tracked a murderous, feral Vampire to Mystic Falls. A brief call was all she needed to have him rushing from Rome to Mystic Falls. Two days is all she needed to wait before they were able to draw Mikael away from the town and everyone she loved.

Vextherian kidnapped a human from the local hospital that had been injured during a police raid to catch him. The man was a rapist and a murderer, and thus served as the perfect sacrifice to complete the spell she needed to desiccate Mikael.

* * *

Klaus laughed as he watched Azriaelle run through his house in a simple light purple sundress and bare feet. She was "bad people hunting" and running with a toy slingshot. Or, she had been five minutes earlier, now she was just running from one side of his studio to the other. He smiled as she stopped only long enough to put her lavender socks with their white lace trim back on before continuing her running.

He knew his sister would love the child, as would his brothers, but he couldn't risk their safety while Mikael, their insane and cruel father remained alive. So, instead, he painted the girl as often as he could and he knew Elijah had quite a few photo albums of her. They would show their siblings the photos and paintings when they awoke.

"Uncle Nik?" He paused in his painting to turn to the girl. Azriaelle was only 3 years old, so all she could manage of his name was the first syllable, and it only endeared her to him more.

"Yes Azriaelle?" He replied as he turned to face her. Her sundress was wrinkled, her socks were unevenly folded on her legs and her braided pigtails were unraveling, but her wide green eyes shined up at him completely oblivious to how unkempt she was.

"Can I visit Auntie Bekka, Uncle Finn and Uncle Kol?" Her request made him smile at her even more than he already was. Ever since she had stayed with him last year and had found the caskets while exploring his old house in Venice, she always made a point to visit and talk to his three daggered siblings.

"Yes you can, but after you have lunch and your afternoon nap, okay?" He replied and laughed as her nose scrunched up in distaste of having to nap. The child hated naps; she always said it took away from her "aventuring", or more clearly "adventuring". And he didn't have the heart to deny her.

Azriaelle smiled as she followed her Uncle Nik up the flights of stairs to the fully furnished attic where her Auntie and other Uncles laid sleeping. Nik always opened Auntie Bekka's coffin first, and she wasted no time climbing up onto the chair to look down at the pretty girl within. Her skin, clothes and hair was a gray hue, but she was still pretty. Nik had explained that she had sunflower colored hair that was as long as her own, that her eyes were blue like the sky, and her dress was pearly white. Other than her mummy, her Auntie Bekka was the prettiest woman she knew, and she always made a point to tell her.

Klaus smiled as he listened to Azriaelle yammer away to his comatose little sister and made his way over to his brothers' coffins. It had been a year ago when the precocious child had found the coffins, and he had made her promise not to tell Elijah before he'd let her visit Finn, Kol and Rebekah. He had explained to her how they were supposed to be a surprise for his older brother and eager to please her other uncle, she had quickly agreed to the terms.

"Hello Auntie Bekka, you're so pretty. I'm 3 years old now. Uncle Nik and Uncle Elijah are still spoiling me. I can't wait to meet you. Love you bunches!" Azriaelle said to Rebekah, and he smiled as he watched her lean forward and places a kiss to Rebekah's cheek.

"I'll see you soon little sister." He whispered as he followed the child's example and kissed his sister's cheek before closing and locking the coffin.

Azriaelle giggled as she climbed down from talking to her Auntie and made her way over to the chair that sat next to her Uncle Finn. Uncle Nik had explained to her that his daddy wasn't nice and so he was keeping the three safe until his daddy was made to leave them alone. He also had explained about her Auntie Sage, who was a red-headed beauty that loved her Uncle Finn very much, and how she was waiting for him to wake up.

"Hi Uncle Finn, I've missed you very much." She said to him once she was on the chair and looking down at him. He was in really old clothes, 900 years old, and his wavy hair touched his shoulders. Uncle Nik had explained that Uncle Finn had hair like Uncle Elijah's. "I love you Uncle Finn and I can't wait to meet you and Auntie Sage. Uncle Nik promises to find her once your daddy is gone. I'll see you soon!"

Klaus smiled as he followed the girl from Finn's coffin, to the table where a bouquet of roses, lilies, honeysuckle and wildflowers sit. He had explained how Kol had been a Warlock when they were humans to her, and ever since she had made sure to bring him flowers. To attempt to give him the contact with nature that he had been forced to lose.

"Hello Uncle Kol, I brought you more flowers. I know you can't hear them anymore, but I thought you may still like them near. I love you very much." She whispered to him before placing the flowers around him in the coffin, and as she pulled away to let her Uncle Nik close the coffin on him, she placed a quick kiss to Kol's cheek. "Goodnight Uncle Kol, I'll see you soon."

* * *

Vextherian Altieri sighed as he watched Abby do the spell that would bind them together long enough for him to fight Mikael and dig his nails through his chest and into his heart. The spell called for a human soul to die in exchange of Mikael's, so Abby could then desiccate him. When she had first explained the mechanics of the spell to him, he was against it, until she suggested that they could use a criminal. And so he had found a rather nasty excuse of a human in the local hospital, that he had no qualms sacrificing to rid the world of Mikael, at least for now.

"I'm ready Vextherian, just drink this and be prepared to fight Mikael." Abby's voice broke through his reverie and brought him back to the situation at hand. They were in the middle of a cemetery, waiting for Mikael to arrive, and they only had one shot to take down the man that had ruined his, and his friends' lives.

Abby sat in shock as she watched Vextherian fight with Mikael; it was like watching a movie set in the time of the Vikings or even the Golden Age of Rome. Mikael had broke a branch from a tree and was wielding it like a spear or a trident, and Vextherian held a chain whip that with every brush against Mikael's skin it burned a little more of his flesh away. She quickly realized that her hunter friend was in fact a Vampire, and obviously a very old Vampire to be able to handle Mikael as easily as he was. But at that moment, she didn't care that he was a Vampire or not, all that mattered to her was that Vextherian Altieri had very high morals, and was on her side in this fight.

She was jolted out of her thoughts as she felt the sudden pull of magic alerting her to the connection that Vextherian had made with Mikael's heart. Not wasting any time, she performed the spell to sacrifice the life of the pitiful excuse of a human in front of her and began to desiccate Mikael.

Vextherian smiled as he watched Mikael desiccate, the bastard wasn't dead, but he was as good as. Leaning down to the man, Vextherian sneered and in the ancient tongue that Elijah had taught him, Vextherian whispered in Mikael's ear before the desiccation cut him off from the world, "You will slowly rot as Niklaus, Elijah, your other children and I live our lives to the fullest while you are stuck here knowing that every minute of your miserable life has been wasted."

"What did you say to him?" Abby's voice made him turn and smile sadly at the Witch.

"I told him that he has lost." His smile grew as he thought over everything that the man at his feet had done, and now the world was rid of the cruel man.

"How old are you?"" Abby questioned as she helped him wrap Mikael in spelled chains. She was curious, and she focused on the man before her so she wouldn't think of how she could no longer hear the Spirits.

"I am almost 1,000 years old. I was a Crusader and was made into a Vampire in 1052. Mikael compelled me hundreds of years ago to kill a friend, to defeat the compulsion I drank Vervain. Every day since then I have kept a steady amount of Vervain in my system. To see him in this state, to know I participated in this…" Vextherian answered her question before he trailed off; searching for the right words to express what he was feeling.

"It is a sense of gratification?" Abby smiled sadly as she followed him into the empty crypt. A spell to keep the sarcophagus closed was already set, so all they had to do was place the evil Original in it and close the lid. "What will you do now?"

"I'll go home. Are you going to return to Bonnie?" He turned to her as they closed the lid over the prone form. His face fell as he actually turned to the Witch, she was pale and shaking. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not going back, Vextherian, I can't. The spell stripped me of my powers. I… I just can't go back without them." She looked shattered, and tears spilled out of her eyes as she looked up at him, begging him to understand.

"Then I'll keep an eye on Bonnie. I'll always do my best to protect her. I won't outwardly interfere, but I'll do this for you. You are a friend and a good person Abby, so I will do this for you. I hope we'll meet again."

* * *

Klaus knew the moment they approached the property line of the home that something was wrong, he could smell the blood from where they were. Tapping on the window dividing the back of the limo from the cab, he instructed the driver to stop and wait. He was suddenly thankful that Azriaelle was asleep.

Stepping out of the limo, he quietly shut the door and at vampire speed ran to the start of the driveway. He slowed as the smell of blood assaulted him and the dark waves of magic rippled over his skin. Opening the front door, he gasped at the sight before him; the entire staff was dead in the front foyer. Following the trail of blood and magic remnants, he walked up the stairs and to the children's rooms. There was blood everywhere, everyone was dead and the house had been ransacked. After 682 years, the family that had helped them through so much was decimated in a matter of a day or two. Elijah and Vextherian were going to be devastated, not to mention Azriaelle. The only good thing was that Azriaelle had spent the past week with him.

Taking out his phone, he dialed the number of his oldest friend.

"Hello Niklaus, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Vextherian, there has been… Someone attacked the de Leon family, with magic. They're all gone, Vex. Azriaelle is the only one left." Klaus couldn't keep his voice from cracking as he relayed the message. There was silence on the other end of the line that seemed to go on for hours, but was only a few minutes. Klaus could imagine what was going through his friend's mind, the calming techniques that he had learnt as a Crusader and a Templar Knight were being put to use to keep his mind clear and not see red.

"I'm coming home. I'll take Azriaelle to Elijah's. Then we will hunt down the people that did this." Vextherian's voice was cold, and it made Klaus smile, even as he shivered in fear. The younger man was terrifying enemy that Klaus was glad he never had to go up against.

"I'll be in London with Azriaelle while I wait for you. Whoever did this will pay."


End file.
